In Wyoming County, electric company National Grid is preparing to complete a multi-million dollar clean energy project, called a biodigester and touted as a big step towards green energy.

The giant machine uses animal and food wastes to produce fertilizer, electricity and heat energy. Supporters tout it as a renewable resource, and say the bio-igester will produce as much as 10,000 megawatt hours of electricity each year – enough to power roughly 550 homes.

The biodigester was built in early 2011 at a farm in Covington. National Grid will finish connecting it to their power grid by the end of work Thursday. After that, the biodigester will be tested for several weeks, eventually working its way up to full capacity.

The biodigester represents nearly $3-million of federal investment, and creates six new jobs.